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Garman faces surgery, year recovery

“I’m just excited for this baseball season, and I’m not even going to throw a ball.”

Brian Garman, recently released by the Milwaukee Brewers, will soon undergo surgery to repair his labrum.

The operation will shelve him for one year.

In the mean time, the Wapakoneta native is going to be in town for during his rehab process.

Upon needed approval, he will be coaching the Wapakoneta High School freshmen baseball team this spring and will be the pitching coach for the Lima Locos baseball team this summer.

“I’m excited about that opportunity,” Garman said. “I get to be in the game of baseball while I’m recovering and I get to teach young kids the game of baseball while I’m recovering.”

Garman hopes the surgery will take place sooner rather than later, aiming to be signed by a major league team by this time next year.

“It’s frustrating because it’s going to take a season off of my career,” Garman said. “It has to be done. The sooner, the better.”

Garman was pitching for the Huntsville (Ala.) Stars this past summer before being sent to Arizona upon being injured.

After a couple months on the disabled list, Garman did see some innings in the Arizona Rookie League at the end of the season.

Still, however, the Brewers did not wish to retain him.

“I kind of saw that coming. I was not surprised by the release,” Garman said. “The Brewers did not take care of surgery when they saw the MRI in July and they really delayed the inevitable with the Cortisone.”

He did say that upon his release from the Brewers, he did garner interest from other major league teams but did not pursue a contract.

“I was pretty honest with those teams,” Garman said. “I said I don’t think things are going to be great.

“I wanted to let those teams know that, so they didn’t end up signing me and being responsible for it. I didn’t want to put a team on the hook for that.”

In his voice alone, one could hear the determination Garman will display during his rehab process.
“I’m excited to take on the 2015 season,” he said. “I’m not worried about things not going way. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure my shoulder is better than it has been.

“I’m going to make a pretty good run at this.”

Assuming he is signed at this time next winter, Garman said he hopes to at least return to the double-A level, where he was pitching prior to his labrum injury.

“It’s safe to say I would at least go to double-A,” he said. “If I can convince a team to give me a triple-A contract, I’d definitely take that.”